Morocco Braces for Potential COVID-19 Surge as Eid Al Adha Approaches

Moroccans are preparing to celebrate Eid Al Adha but the concern remains. The type of gatherings that this religious festival occasions is conducive to physical contact and is not very compatible with the barrier gestures that should be adopted in the face of an ongoing Covid-19 epidemic, reports the daily Assabah, which adds that the kingdom is already recording an increase in the rate of contamination by variants in a month.

Last Sunday, 2,150 confirmed cases in 24 hours were added to the 15,000 active cases, 505 of which are in intensive care, the same source informs, specifying that 16 deaths were recorded, an increase of 110% compared to the previous Saturday’s report. The authorities are very concerned and expect Morocco to break a sad record of infections and deaths, two weeks after Eid Al-Adha.

It should be known that fifteen days constitute the incubation period (the period between contamination and the appearance of the first symptoms) of the coronavirus. As a result, the Ministry of Health fears that this wave, expected after the holiday, will cause the collapse of the health system, particularly in terms of intensive care beds.

To avoid this relapse, the daily proposes strengthened controls and severe fines for offenders who do not comply with the preventive measures, especially since the communication and awareness campaigns on the spread of Covid-19 do not seem to deter a large number of citizens who behave as if the virus has been definitively curbed by vaccination.